Population Registration Act, 1950

{{Short description|Apartheid-era South African law}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}

{{cleanup-reorganize|date=May 2017}}{{use South African English|date=May 2017}}

{{Infobox legislation

| short_title = Population Registration Act, 1950

| legislature =

| image = Coat of Arms of South Africa (1932-2000).svg

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| caption =

| long_title = Act to make provision for the compilation of a Register of the Population of the Union; for the issue of Identity Cards to persons whose names are included in the Register; and for matters incidental thereto.

| citation = Act No. 30 of 1950

| territorial_extent =

| enacted_by = Parliament of South Africa

| date_enacted =

| date_passed =

| enacted_by2 =

| date_enacted2 =

| date_passed2 =

| assented_by = Governor-General Gideon Brand van Zyl

| date_assented =

| royal_assent = 22 June 1950

| date_signed =

| date_commenced = 7 July 1950

| date_of_expiry =

| date_repealed = 28 June 1991

| administered_by = Minister of the Interior

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| amendments =

| repealed_by = Population Registration Act Repeal Act, 1991

| summary =

| keywords =

| status = repealed

}}

The Population Registration Act of 1950 required that each inhabitant of South Africa be classified and registered in accordance with their racial characteristics as part of the system of apartheid.{{cite web|title=South African Demographic Health Survey|year=1998|publisher=Department of Health|url=http://www.doh.gov.za/facts/1998/sadhs98/chapter1.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726195853/http://www.doh.gov.za/facts/1998/sadhs98/chapter1.pdf|archive-date=26 July 2011|access-date=9 March 2013}}{{cite web|last=Posel|first=Deborah|url=http://pdfproc.lib.msu.edu/?file=/DMC/African%20Journals/pdfs/transformation/tran047/tran047005.pdf|title=What's in a name? Racial categorisations under apartheid and their afterlife|year=2001|publisher=Michigan State University|access-date=4 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305235727/http://pdfproc.lib.msu.edu/?file=/DMC/African%20Journals/pdfs/transformation/tran047/tran047005.pdf|archive-date=5 March 2016|url-status=live}}{{cite news|title=South African activist teacher gets education doctorate|url=http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/91/910610Arc1324.html|access-date=9 March 2013|newspaper=Stanford News Service|year=1991}}

File: Population registration certificate South Africa 1988.jpg

File:ApartheidPopulationGroups.jpg

Social rights, political rights, educational opportunities, and economic status were largely determined by the group to which an individual belonged. There were three basic racial classifications under the law: Black, White and Coloured (mixed). Indians (that is, South Asians from the former British India, and their descendants) were later added as a separate classification as they were seen as having "no historical right to the country".

An Office for Race Classification was set up to overview the classification process. Classification into groups was carried out using criteria such as outer appearance, general acceptance and social standing. For example, it defined a "white person" as one who "in appearance is obviously a white person who is generally not accepted as a coloured person, or is generally accepted as a white person and is not in appearance obviously a white person." Because some aspects of the profile were of a social nature, reclassification was not uncommon, and a board was established to conduct that process. The following criteria were used for separating the coloured people from the white people:

• Characteristics of the person's head hair
• Characteristics of the person's other hair
• Skin colour
• Facial features
• Home language and especially the knowledge of Afrikaans
• Area where the person lives, the person's friends and acquaintances
• Employment
• Socioeconomic status
• Eating and drinking habits

This law worked in tandem with other laws passed as part of the apartheid system. Under the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949, it was illegal for a white person to marry a person of another race. With the enactment of the Immorality Amendment Act of 1950, it also became a crime for a white person and a person of another race to have sexual intercourse.

Under the act, as amended, Coloureds and Indians were formally classified into various subgroups, including Cape Coloured, Malay, Griqua, Chinese, Indian, Other Asian and Other Coloured.{{cite web|last=Valentine|first=Sue|title=An appalling 'science'|url=http://heritage.thetimes.co.za/memorials/wc/RaceClassificationBoard/article.aspx?id=591128|work=Sunday Times Heritage Project|publisher=The Times|access-date=9 March 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120423220247/http://heritage.thetimes.co.za/memorials/wc/RaceClassificationBoard/article.aspx?id=591128|archive-date=23 April 2012}}{{cite book|last=Leach|first=Graham|title=South Africa : no easy path to peace|year=1986|publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul|location=London|isbn=0710208480|pages=[https://archive.org/details/southafricanoeas0000leac/page/70 70]|url=https://archive.org/details/southafricanoeas0000leac|url-access=registration|quote=Population Registration Act, 1959 cape coloured.|edition=1. publ.}}

The South African Parliament repealed the act on 17 June 1991. However, the racial categories defined in the act remain ingrained in South African culture{{cite news|last=Rondganger|first=Lee|title=Being an African makes me who I am|url=http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/technology/being-an-african-makes-me-who-i-am-1.280599#.UTsrQ9ZTCz4|access-date=9 March 2013|newspaper=IOL|date=6 June 2006}}{{cite news|last=du Preez|first=Max|title=Are we all 'coloured'?|url=http://www.news24.com/Columnists/MaxduPreez/Are-we-all-coloured-20110309|access-date=9 March 2013|newspaper=News24|date=9 March 2011}}{{cite journal |url=http://www.transformation.und.ac.za/issue%2047/47%20posel1.pdf |title= What's in a name? Racial categorisations under apartheid and their afterlife|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061108101109/http://www.transformation.und.ac.za/issue%2047/47%20posel1.pdf |archive-date=2006-11-08 |journal=Transformation|issn=0258-7696 |year=2001|last=Posel|first= Deborah|pages= 50–74}}{{cite book|last1=Pillay|first1=Kathryn|title=The Palgrave Handbook of Ethnicity|chapter=Indian Identity in South Africa|year=2019|pages=77–92|doi=10.1007/978-981-13-2898-5_9|isbn=978-981-13-2897-8|doi-access=free}} and they still form the basis of some official policies and statistics aimed at redressing past economic imbalances (Black Economic Empowerment and Employment Equity).{{cite news|last=Lehohla|first=Pali|title=Debate over race and censuses not peculiar to SA|url=http://www.statssa.gov.za/news_archive/05may2005_1.asp|date=5 May 2005|newspaper=Business Report|access-date=25 August 2013|quote=Others pointed out that the repeal of the Population Registration Act in 1991 removed any legal basis for specifying 'race'. The Identification Act of 1997 makes no mention of race. On the other hand, the Employment Equity Act speaks of 'designated groups' being 'black people, women and people with disabilities'. The Act defines 'black' as referring to 'Africans, coloureds and Indians'. Apartheid and the racial identification which underpinned it explicitly linked race with differential access to resources and power. If the post-apartheid order was committed to remedying this, race would have to be included in surveys and censuses, so that progress in eradicating the consequences of apartheid could be measured and monitored. This was the reasoning that led to a 'self-identifying' question about 'race' or 'population group' in both the 1996 and 2001 population censuses, and in Statistics SA's household survey programme.|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070814143522/http://www.statssa.gov.za/news_archive/05may2005_1.asp|archive-date=14 August 2007}}{{cite news|last=Davis|first=Rebecca|title=DA: We're not over race, but united we stand|url=http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-11-25-da-were-not-over-race-but-united-we-stand/#.UpLkg9IwrIx|access-date=25 November 2013|newspaper=Daily Maverick|date=25 November 2013}}